Photos: Egypt displays trove of newly discovered ancient artifacts

Painted coffins with well-preserved mummies are displayed during a press conference at a makeshift exhibit at the feet of the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, 24 kilometres (15 miles) southwest of Cairo. Egypt on Monday displayed a trove of ancient artefacts dating back 2,500 years that the country's antiquities authorities said were recently unearthed at the famed necropolis of Saqqara near Cairo.

The artefacts displayed at a makeshift exhibit at the feet of the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, 24 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of the Egyptian capital.

Archaeologists measure the length to register one of the sarcophaguses found in a cache dating to the Egyptian Late Period discovered by a mission headed by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities at the Bubastian cemetery at the Saqqara necropolis, southwest of Egypt's capital.

According to Mostafa Waziri, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the find includes 250 painted sarcophagi with well-preserved mummies inside, as well as 150 bronze statues of ancient deities and bronze vessels used in rituals of Isis, the goddess of fertility in ancient Egyptian mythology, all from the Late Period, about 500 B.C.

A headless bronze statue of Imhotep, the chief architect of Pharaoh Djoser, who ruled ancient Egypt between 2630 BC and 2611 BC, was also displayed.

Figurines depicting the Egyptian goddesses (L to R), Isis (Iset) and Nephthys (Nebet-Het) and other sarcophaguses found in a cache dating to the Egyptian Late Period (around the fifth century BC) are displayed at the Saqqara necropolis, southwest of Egypt's capital on May 30, 2022.

A reporter films a headless bronze statue of Imhotep, the chief architect of Pharaoh Djoser who oversaw the building of the step pyramid, at a makeshift exhibit at the feet of the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara.

A labourer uses a hand air blower to brush dust off one of the sarcophaguses at the Saqqara necropolis, southwest of Egypt's capital on May 30, 2022.

The Saqqara site is part of a sprawling necropolis at Egypt’s ancient capital of Memphis that includes the Giza Pyramids and the smaller pyramids at Abu Sir, Dahshur and Abu Ruwaysh. The ruins of Memphis were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1970s.

Egypt has been heavily promoting recent archaeological finds, hoping to attract more tourists to the country.

The sector has recently started to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

A reporter films painted coffins with well-preserved mummies inside, at a makeshift exhibit at the feet of the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, 24 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of Cairo, Egypt.

A sarcophagus that is around 2500 years old, from the newly discovered burial site near Egypt's Saqqara necropolis.